Internship Blog - click on Title to read full Blog and see Photos

3 First Week at Sea with the Alvin Group

Author:
Nicholas Ellis
Host Vessel:
R/V Atlantis

Greetings! I’ve now completed my third week aboard the R/V Atlantis and have spent the whole week at sea as we travel down to the coast of Florida. My third week has consisted of many sub launches and recoveries, as well as adjusting to life at sea.

Tuesday was a dive day, so we woke up early and got to work on the pre-dive checks. I worked on windows mainly and securing tools and containers on the collection basket. The day was very similar to Monday, except that the dive wasn’t cut short. When we recovered the sub, however, there were many squid trapped inside the skins and in the cabling. I immediately found and took out three squid that measured about 18 inches each and gave them to the scientists. I later learned that they planned on taking stable isotopes from the squid to eventually be able to know at what tropic level they were eating. Finding the squid in the sub was the highlight of my day because I did not expect to see such a thing.

Wednesday was going to be a dive day, but due to high winds we were not able to launch and had to scratch the dive. Instead, we worked on maintenance and some projects that we had waiting. I worked on clearing out the rest of the squid from Alvin’s skins and frame and spent about two to three hours on it. The squid were starting to stink up the hangar, and in total I found eight squid (including the ones from yesterday). I also saw a massive car carrier ship about a mile and a half away from us which was interesting because I didn’t think that I would see other ships during the cruise. Nick and I worked to clean the mech shop and we also stowed more supplies in the hold/forward van. Danik and Nick got the broken Titan 4 working again and we mounted it on Alvin to test the hydraulics. In the evening, I went up to visit Kenny and Raul at the bridge, and Kenny explained to me what they use their different instruments for. I learned that many of the tools aboard are redundancies for double and triple checking things like heading, obstacles, and weather. Kenny also showed me the paper map that they use to track and map their course. The view was spectacular and though it was very cloudy, we could see the sky lit up by lightning and the moonlight reflect into the water.

Thursday was a dive day in search of coral samples. The water was dead calm and the sky was a clear blue and dotted with spectacular clouds. With more sun, the water was sort of glowing a deep blue color as it lapped against the ship. The Alvin launch went smoothly and we knocked off at 1000. I explored the ship a little more and relaxed for a bit, then at about 1630 Alvin surfaced and we began our recovery process. I was able to participate more in it because I had been watching previous times. I hosed down the sub with freshwater and helped test the hydraulic lines for any saltwater leakage. I also inspected some of the junction boxes for leakage and the skins for deformities. Watching the scientists unload their samples of coral was very exciting, and I even got a small piece of lophelia coral which is a deep-water coral. Afterwards I went to the bow to enjoy the sunset and all the clouds that surrounded it. It was a sight to behold and looked just like a painting with the some clouds towering over us and others smudged across the purple/orange sky.

I was surprised when Friday came around because I wasn’t keeping track of the days while at sea. I heard this would happen, and that I would only know days as dive days/non-dive days. Anyways, today was a dive day and we did pre-dive as usual. The winds were strong and the ship was rolling and pitching a lot today, but everything went smoothly. Afterwards, I organized the mech shop until about 1000 when I got to take a three hour break. Afterwards, I helped with post-dive and was able to learn/do a new task which was to throw the tow line to the small boat and call out when it was secure. I also sprayed down Alvin, checked all of the oil lines for saltwater leakage, and inspected the junction boxes near the sail (plastic orange piece up top). After that, I helped Nick do some inventory on what consumables we had and what we had to order for the next cruise. We checked around the hold and the forward van for the necessary supplies, and by the time we finished that everyone else was already done with setting up the basket. This meant that we were able to finish the day quite early today (at 1630) which left plenty of time to unwind, enjoy the sunset off the bow and rest up.

On Saturday we woke up early to do the pre-dive checks and I was surprised by the lovely sunset that was off the starboard side of the ship. It was a great mixture of oranges, blues, and purples and the sun was partially obscured by some clouds which made the light reflect nicely. Interestingly, I realized that the sun was rising off the starboard side of the ship and remembered that just the night before it had set on the same side. I was baffled for a split second and then realized we must’ve changed our direction. I found it surprising that I did not feel anything or notice that we had flipped around. The dive went well and Alvin brought up many samples including some bamboo coral which looked just like bamboo but slightly lighter in color. Danik also trained me to use the lathe and the mill, which was a good refresher for me, and we worked on turning/milling a camera handle for a member of the camera crew. I learned that the process of putting the grip marks on a handle is called knurling which is done with a special tool on the lathe. After recovering the sub, we completed the post-dive and worked re-tool the basket. We knocked off around 2030 and after playing a game of chess with Max, I went to sleep.

Sunday was a dive day and a day full of side projects. By now we were diving off the coast of Florida and Georgia. I got to work on cleaning the windows and helped complete the pre-dive. After Alvin had commenced its dive down in the Gulf Stream, Nick and I got to work on unclogging the sink in our mech shop. We started by using wire to remove debris from inside the upper part of the plumbing and removed one of the plugs on the side of the piping. After cleaning out the debris there, the sink was still plugged so we asked a crewmember to help us and he ended up fixing it. After break, I worked on building a small PVC table for a member of the science crew and turned the legs on the lathe to get them to fit snugly inside the table-top. When I had finished my lathing work it was time to recover the sub, so I went to the aft deck to prep everything. I set out a hose for the freshwater cleaning, some tools for removing panels and some oil bottles with Swagelock connectors to test the oil drainage connections on Alvin. After watching the recovery go smoothly, I got to work on the post-dive and hosed off Alvin, checked the Swagelock connectors for any leaks, and inspected the buoyancy/skins for any damage. I also inspected and greased the lifting T once Alvin was rolled back into the hangar and helped with unload. After dinner, I finished work on the PVC table and glued the legs into their proper sockets. By then it was time to knock off and relax for the rest of the evening which consisted of playing a game of Settlers of Catan with Nick and Max.

On Monday we had a dive and completed all of our pre-dive checks. After the sub was in the water, I worked on scrubbing the hangar down with Jake and later worked to sort the drawers of tools in the mech shop. The time for sub on surface (SOS) was 1700, so we prepared the aft deck for the recovery and post-dive. I worked on testing all of the hydraulic oil lines, inspecting the various junction boxes for leaks, and inspecting the lifting T. It turned out to be a very late night for some of the ops group because they found a ground in the main ballast tanks. Grounds are undesirable and must be avoided because they lead to corrosion on the sub’s body and shorting. I learned that Alvin can be operated as long as there are five or fewer of these grounds. Some of the more senior members of the group stayed up late working down the line of things that could have caused the ground. In the end, they found that they had to change out a sphere penetrator which is what caused the fix to take so long. The sphere penetrators must be handled and maintained carefully because they are some of the few things that create holes in the sphere.

On Tuesday we had our fourth to last dive. When I came out at 0530 to clean the windows, I expected the sub to still need working on from the previous night, but it was all put together. The launch and dive went well, and while we were on break (waiting for Alvin to complete its dive) my mentor Bruce told about how he had seen a swordfish drop coral on the sub in a sort of aggressive attack. He found it interesting because he had never seen such behavior. I learned that swordfish are often eaten by giant squid, so it was possible that the swordfish thought Alvin was predator like the squid. During recovery and post-dive I found some water had leaked into the Main Ballast Blow Box, and notified Jefferson. After inspecting it, he decided to watch for a couple more dives to see if the issue got worse and the old box needed repairs. I worked until about 2030 with Todd and Bruce on setting up the new basket for Wednesday’s dive and securing various crates of tools such as collections of push cores, the slurp (vacuum), bio boxes, niskins for water samples, and mussel pots for collecting mussel-populated patches of earth.

Thanks for reading this week’s update about my internship with the Alvin Group! On this cruise, I’ve learned so much about how Alvin is maintained, tested, and operated. I’ve also learned quite a bit about life at sea and the continuous work that must be done to maintain the R/V Atlantis and Alvin.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Numbers DRL/ITEST 1312333 and DUE/ATE 1104310. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.